YOU ASK QUESTIONS.
That’s research: You ask questions, and then you try to answer them. Maybe you wonder about the effects of legacy chemicals hanging around in soils, how chemicals make their way through cell walls, or how to better treat cancer. In any case, you take a notion, start looking into something, and get busy.
Maybe you find an answer; maybe you don’t. It almost certainly takes years, decades. Scientists commonly say that the most exciting words in science are not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny” – a researcher sees something unexpected, wonders what’s up, and goes on to discover something new, which leads to another experiment and another, and another, and another.
Those discoveries change our lives. They hit us where we live. They provide drugs and procedures that protect our health, insight that advances how we understand the world. All over Duke, researchers are posing questions, setting up experiments. Following their noses into the unknown or not well understood. Because of their work yesterday, today we have treatments and drugs and understanding. Because of their work today, tomorrow we’ll have … something we can’t even imagine.
At a moment when the research enterprise is being questioned and even under assault, we went looking for what Duke researchers are up to. - Scott Huler
- BREAST CANCER: Could it be treated before surgery?
- GENE THERAPY: Might a single shot mend a broken heart?
- MAGIC DOESN'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT: Developing new treatments can be a decades-long effort
- GENETIC DISCOVERY: What is the dark matter of the human genome?
- JOINT REPAIR: Do Salamanders hold the key?
- MIND MEDICINE: Can AI revolutionize deep brain stimulation?
- HUMAN AGING: What affects our rate of mental and physical decline?
- FOCUS ON FUNGUS: What causes it to make people sick?
- LEAD LEVELS: What hidden dangers are in our soil?
- IT SAVED MY LIFE: Staff writer Corbie Hill shares his personal story